'Wonderful Life' had disappointing opening

Published 6:30 am, Saturday, December 25, 2004

That super-hot kiss between Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed. The Charleston contest, and the retractable dance floor with a pool underneath. Hee-haw, Sam Wainwright! Clarence the unlikely guardian angel. "I want to live again!"

And of course the famous line uttered by little Zuzu: "Teacher says every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings."

Those are just some of the things we love about Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life. The film did only so-so business in the winter of 1946-47 but, thanks to countless TV showings in later decades, it became a bona-fide holiday classic.

Dark moment

Although it's a dark moment — a man contemplating suicide on Christmas Eve — that sets the story in motion, the film has a happy, if not typically Hollywood, ending. (The audience never does find out if mean old Mr. Potter gets what's coming to him.)

Jimmy Stewart's favorite of all his movies (Capra's favorite of his own films, too) turns up on Christmas night on NBC. Here, just for the occasion, are a few behind-the-scenes tidbits to put you in a Wonderful mood.

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The basic story came to author/historian Philip Van Doren Stern while shaving one morning. A few years later Stern printed up his short story and sent it out as Christmas cards.

Stewart or Fonda

Capra wanted either Jimmy Stewart or
Henry Fonda
for the
George Bailey
role. As it happened Stewart, just back from World War II, was staying at Fonda's place when he signed on.

H.B. Warner, who played Mr. Gower, young George's druggist boss, had portrayed Christ 20 years earlier in Cecil B. De Mille's King of Kings, and as a result was usually offered only dignified roles. He was delighted to be cast as a "proper drunk" in this movie. Warner apparently believed in Method acting; with Capra's blessing he started drinking early the day he was to box George's bad ear.

The Bedford Falls set was reputed to be one of the longest ever made for an American movie at the time: three city blocks over four acres, including a tree-lined median and 75 building fronts. The trees were real — 20 full-grown oaks were transplanted. The Christmas Eve snowstorm required spraying 50 tons of white plaster on the trees, plus 250 tons for snow banks. The snowstorm was shot in June 1946. The first day the temperature was in the 90s by noon, but this white stuff was unmeltable.

Early on in filming, Capra wasn't crazy about how Lionel Barrymore, as Mr. Potter, looked. He didn't want audiences to see Barrymore and think of the kindly curmudgeons he'd played before. Capra gave makeup people a copy of Grant Wood's famous American Gothic painting and told them he wanted Barrymore to look something like that. A skullcap and makeup resulted in the Potter we know and hate today.

It's a Wonderful Life was supposed to have premiered in January 1947 but, at the last minute its release was moved up to Christmas week 1946. Another good thing (the thinking went) about a December release was that the film might coast to Academy Award wins, given the field that year.

Modest hit

So much for best-laid plans:
Wonderful
was only a modest hit; it certainly didn't meet expectations. Oscarwise, Capra's movie won nothing at all, even though it had been nominated for best picture, actor and director. (
The Best Years of Our Lives
nabbed each of those.)

What about George? Was his really a wonderful life? "In the end he is still stuck in Bedford Falls," Frank Capra Jr. told the Los Angeles Times in 2003. "He's still got Mr. Potter to contend with. But he has his family, and he has his friends. How can that not appeal to everyone?"